Common Ground Center at the University of California is honored to host Right Livelihood Award Laureate Bill McKibben on Thursday, February 26, 2015 in the Kresge Town Hall. Bill will present via Skype (in honor of greenhouse gas reduction) beginning at 2pm with Q&A to follow until 3pm. Following his talk will be a series of interactive exercises, inspired by Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects, World Café conversations and a free dinner prepared by India Joze, with an anticipated end time of 6:00pm.Bill is an author and environmentalist leading the discussion in climate change. His 1989 book “The End of Nature” is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. He is a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement. 350.org is named for the safe level of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, 350 parts per million.

Bill was recognized in 2014 by the Right Livelihood Award, know as the Alternative Nobel Prize, for “mobilizing growing popular support in the USA and around the world for strong action to counter the threat of global climate change.” The Right Livelihood Award is presented to four people annually who are striving to better the future of the planet through their work, specifically in the realm of environmental health, human rights and social justice. The Right Livelihood Award Foundation seeks to recognize those who are making a difference, not by their political or social status, but by their dedication to solving the challenges facing humanity and the practical work they do in the world. Kresge College is honored to be one of seven Right Livelihood Colleges globally, acting to link the activism of the laureates with the academic world of students, faculty, and researchers.

Additionally, Bill is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was the 2013 winner of the Gandhi Prize and the Thomas Merton Prize, and holds honorary degrees from 18 colleges and universities. Foreign Policy named him to their inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers, and the Boston Globe said he was “probably America’s most important environmentalist.” A former staff writer for the New Yorker, he writes frequently for a wide variety of publications around the world, including the New York Review of Books, National Geographic, and Rolling Stone.

The event is sponsored by UCSC’s Common Ground Center at Kresge College. The mission of the Common Ground Center is to “create cultural change for social justice, environmental regeneration and economic viability”. The Center hosts a series of public lectures and workshops based on this mission, as well as undergraduate courses, a themed residence hall, and a wide range of student-led activities. A list of subsequent talks, and more information, can be found at kresge.ucsc.edu/commonground. This event is free and open to the public. Parking information is online at http://kresge.ucsc.edu/commonground/about/parking.html

Common Ground Center, Email: commonground@ucsc.edu

Web: http://kresge.ucsc.edu/commonground

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